Forthcoming — Routledge, 2027

The Subnational State and Crisis Response

Understanding Pandemic Governance across India

The Subnational State & Crisis Response

Edited by Rachel M. Gisselquist, Anustup Kundu & Kunal Sen · 1st Edition · 164 pages · 46 B/W illustrations · Routledge

How did India's states confront the challenge of COVID-19, and what insights does this experience offer for future crisis response? This volume brings nationwide quantitative analysis together with five in-depth case studies — Bihar, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal — to examine how differences in state capacity, legitimacy, and authority shaped policy responses and outcomes across the pandemic's first two waves.

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The subnational state and the impact of COVID-19 across IndiaRachel M. Gisselquist, Anustup Kundu, Kunal Sen
The COVID-19 pandemic and state myopia in BiharAvinash Kumar & Manish Kumar
The social foundations of (in)effective states: COVID-19 and Uttar Pradesh's responseIndrajit Roy
State capacity in mitigating health emergencies: COVID-19 response in West BengalZaad Mahmood & Achin Chakraborty
The role of state capacity and clientelism in shaping COVID-19 responses in KeralaJos Chathukulam & Manasi Joseph
Pandemic precarity, state capacity, and governance fault lines: the paradoxical case of MaharashtraManish K. Jha
Concluding thoughtsRachel M. Gisselquist, Anustup Kundu, Kunal Sen

Editors

Rachel M. Gisselquist is Professor in Governance and Development, and Director of the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC), University of Birmingham, UK.

Anustup Kundu is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Western Australia – India.

Kunal Sen is Professor of Development Economics at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, and former Director of UNU-WIDER.

The Subnational State and Crisis Response

Table of contents

Editors